Discovery and Service Mapping of Serverless Resources

ABSTRACT

A computing system may include a database disposed within a remote network management platform that manages a managed network, and a software application associated with the platform. The software application may be configured to: obtain a unit of programmatic code from a third-party computing system, where the unit of programmatic code is hosted by the third-party computing system on behalf of the managed network, and where a program using the unit of programmatic code is executable by computing resources of the third-party computing system that are assigned on demand; parse the unit of programmatic code for a pattern indicative of respective relationships between the unit of programmatic code and service(s) provided by the third-party computing system; generate an association between the unit of programmatic code and the service(s); and store, in the database, representations of the unit of programmatic code, the service(s), and the association therebetween as discovered configuration items.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser.No. 15/944,523, filed on Apr. 3, 2018, the contents of which areentirely incorporated herein by reference, as if fully set forth in thisapplication.

BACKGROUND

In practice, management of a network may involve gathering informationregarding the configuration and operational aspects of the network.Traditionally, computing devices and applications operating on orassociated with such a network were viewed in isolation. Thus, it wasdifficult to determine the impact that a problem with a particularcomputing device or application will have on service(s) provided by orto the network. Service mapping is a set of operations through which aremote network management platform or other entity can discover andorganize these computing devices and applications, and represent therelationships therebetween.

SUMMARY

Service mapping facilitates the representation of the hardware andsoftware components associated with a managed network. This may involvevisually representing these components and the relationships betweenthem in the form of a service map on a graphical user interface. Doingso allows the relationships to be easily understood. From time to time,this service map may be updated as the hardware and software componentschange, or in order to correct or otherwise improve the service map.

In some situations, however, a managed network may use services of athird-party computing system, which may raise various challenges forfacilitating service mapping.

By way of example, the third-party computing system may provide acloud-based service that allows a user of the managed network to uploada unit of programmatic code, so that the unit of programmatic code ishosted by the third-party computing system, thereby offloading resourceallocation and management of the unit of programmatic code to thethird-party computing system. In practice, a program using the unit ofprogrammatic code may be executed in response to a trigger event, whichmay be initiated by one of various entities, such as, for example, by aclient device on the managed network and/or by an application on theinternet, among other possibilities. In this regard, the program usingthe unit of programmatic code may be executable by computing resourcesof the third-party computing system. These computing resources may beassigned on demand, which effectively allows the managed network to usecomputing resources of the third-party computing system on an as-neededbasis for executing the hosted unit of programmatic code.

In some cases, execution of a program using the unit of programmaticcode may trigger usage of other service(s) provided by the third-partycomputing system. Yet, service mapping may not discover respectiverelationships between the unit of programmatic code and these otherservice(s) provided by the third-party computing system, because thethird-party computing system may not have any specific computingresources dedicated to execution of the program using the unit ofprogrammatic code, as such computing resources are assigned on demand asnoted above. Thus, these respective relationships may not be easilyunderstood.

Disclosed herein is a software application that is configured todiscover respective relationship(s) between a unit of programmatic coderemotely hosted for execution on a third-party computing system andother service(s) provided by the third-party computing system and/or byanother computing system, so as to help facilitate service mapping. Thissoftware application could be configured to execute on a server devicewithin a remote network management platform and/or on a server devicewithin a managed network, among other possibilities.

In accordance with the present disclosure, the software application mayobtain the unit of programmatic code from the third-party computingsystem, and may then parse the unit of programmatic code for a patternindicative of respective relationships between the unit and otherservice(s). For example, the software application may determine that theunit of programmatic code includes a particular address (e.g., a uniformresource locator (URL)) that has a particular format and that identifiesa particular service in accordance with the particular format.

After parsing the obtained unit of programmatic code, the softwareapplication may generate an association between the unit and theservice(s) with which respective relationship(s) were discovered duringthe parsing. The software application may then store, in a database,representations of the unit of programmatic code, the discoveredservice(s), and the association therebetween. In some cases, thesoftware application could also generate a service map for display by aclient device of a managed network via a graphical user interface. Thisservice map may represent the unit of programmatic code as a node, thediscovered service(s) as respective node(s), and the associationtherebetween as one or more links.

In this way, the software application may help discover relationship(s)between the unit of programmatic code and other service(s), and do soindependently from the above-described on demand execution of theprogram using the unit of programmatic code. Other advantages arepossible as well.

Accordingly, a first example embodiment may involve a computing systemincluding (i) a database disposed within a remote network managementplatform that manages a managed network and (ii) a software applicationassociated with the remote network management platform. The softwareapplication may be configured to carry out discovery of serverlessresources using operations including: obtaining a unit of programmaticcode from a third-party computing system, where the unit of programmaticcode is hosted by the third-party computing system on behalf of themanaged network, and where a program using the unit of programmatic codeis executable by computing resources of the third-party computing systemthat are assigned on demand; parsing the unit of programmatic code for apattern indicative of respective relationships between the unit ofprogrammatic code and one or more services provided by the third-partycomputing system or by another computing system; based on the patternbeing present in the unit of programmatic code, generating anassociation between the unit of programmatic code and the one or moreservices; and storing, in the database, representations of the unit ofprogrammatic code, the one or more services, and the associationtherebetween as discovered configuration items.

A second example embodiment may involve obtaining, by a computingsystem, a unit of programmatic code from a third-party computing system,where the computing system includes a database disposed within a remotenetwork management platform that manages a managed network, where theunit of programmatic code is hosted by the third-party computing systemon behalf of the managed network, and where a program using the unit ofprogrammatic code is executable by computing resources of thethird-party computing system that are assigned on demand. The secondexample embodiment may also involve parsing, by the computing system,the unit of programmatic code for a pattern indicative of respectiverelationships between the unit of programmatic code and one or moreservices provided by the third-party computing system or by anothercomputing system. The second example embodiment may further involve,based on the pattern being present in the unit of programmatic code,generating, by the computing system, an association between the unit ofprogrammatic code and the one or more services. The second exampleembodiment may yet further involve storing, by the computing system inthe database, representations of the unit of programmatic code, the oneor more services, and the association therebetween as discoveredconfiguration items.

In a third example embodiment, an article of manufacture may include anon-transitory computer-readable medium, having stored thereon programinstructions that, upon execution by a computing system, cause thecomputing system to perform operations in accordance with the firstand/or second example embodiments.

In a fourth example embodiment, a computing system may include at leastone processor, as well as memory and program instructions. The programinstructions may be stored in the memory, and upon execution by the atleast one processor, cause the computing system to perform operations inaccordance with the first and/or second example embodiments.

In a fifth example embodiment, a system may include various means forcarrying out each of the operations of the first and/or second exampleembodiments.

These as well as other embodiments, aspects, advantages, andalternatives will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the artby reading the following detailed description, with reference whereappropriate to the accompanying drawings. Further, this summary andother descriptions and figures provided herein are intended toillustrate embodiments by way of example only and, as such, thatnumerous variations are possible. For instance, structural elements andprocess steps can be rearranged, combined, distributed, eliminated, orotherwise changed, while remaining within the scope of the embodimentsas claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic drawing of a computing device, inaccordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic drawing of a server device cluster, inaccordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 3 depicts a remote network management architecture, in accordancewith example embodiments.

FIG. 4 depicts a communication environment involving a remote networkmanagement architecture, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 5A depicts another communication environment involving a remotenetwork management architecture, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 5B is a flow chart, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 6 depicts communications between a computing system, a clientdevice, and a third-party computing system, in accordance with exampleembodiments.

FIG. 7A depicts a graphical user interface representation of a servicemap, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 7B depicts another graphical user interface representation of aservice map, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 8 is another flow chart, in accordance with example embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Example methods, devices, and systems are described herein. It should beunderstood that the words “example” and “exemplary” are used herein tomean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any embodimentor feature described herein as being an “example” or “exemplary” is notnecessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over otherembodiments or features unless stated as such. Thus, other embodimentscan be utilized and other changes can be made without departing from thescope of the subject matter presented herein.

Accordingly, the example embodiments described herein are not meant tobe limiting. It will be readily understood that the aspects of thepresent disclosure, as generally described herein, and illustrated inthe figures, can be arranged, substituted, combined, separated, anddesigned in a wide variety of different configurations. For example, theseparation of features into “client” and “server” components may occurin a number of ways.

Further, unless context suggests otherwise, the features illustrated ineach of the figures may be used in combination with one another. Thus,the figures should be generally viewed as component aspects of one ormore overall embodiments, with the understanding that not allillustrated features are necessary for each embodiment.

Additionally, any enumeration of elements, blocks, or steps in thisspecification or the claims is for purposes of clarity. Thus, suchenumeration should not be interpreted to require or imply that theseelements, blocks, or steps adhere to a particular arrangement or arecarried out in a particular order.

I. INTRODUCTION

A large enterprise is a complex entity with many interrelatedoperations. Some of these are found across the enterprise, such as humanresources (HR), supply chain, information technology (IT), and finance.However, each enterprise also has its own unique operations that provideessential capabilities and/or create competitive advantages.

To support widely-implemented operations, enterprises typically useoff-the-shelf software applications, such as customer relationshipmanagement (CRM) and human capital management (HCM) packages. However,they may also need custom software applications to meet their own uniquerequirements. A large enterprise often has dozens or hundreds of thesecustom software applications. Nonetheless, the advantages provided bythe embodiments herein are not limited to large enterprises and may beapplicable to an enterprise, or any other type of organization, of anysize.

Many such software applications are developed by individual departmentswithin the enterprise. These range from simple spreadsheets tocustom-built software tools and databases. But the proliferation ofsiloed custom software applications has numerous disadvantages. Itnegatively impacts an enterprise's ability to run and grow itsoperations, innovate, and meet regulatory requirements. The enterprisemay find it difficult to integrate, streamline and enhance itsoperations due to lack of a single system that unifies its subsystemsand data.

To efficiently create custom applications, enterprises would benefitfrom a remotely-hosted application platform that eliminates unnecessarydevelopment complexity. The goal of such a platform would be to reducetime-consuming, repetitive application development tasks so thatsoftware engineers and individuals in other roles can focus ondeveloping unique, high-value features.

In order to achieve this goal, the concept of Application Platform as aService (aPaaS) is introduced, to intelligently automate workflowsthroughout the enterprise. An aPaaS system is hosted remotely from theenterprise, but may access data, applications, and services within theenterprise by way of secure connections. Such an aPaaS system may have anumber of advantageous capabilities and characteristics. Theseadvantages and characteristics may be able to improve the enterprise'soperations and workflow for IT, HR, CRM, customer service, applicationdevelopment, and security.

The aPaaS system may support development and execution ofmodel-view-controller (MVC) applications. MVC applications divide theirfunctionality into three interconnected parts (model, view, andcontroller) in order to isolate representations of information from themanner in which the information is presented to the user, therebyallowing for efficient code reuse and parallel development. Theseapplications may be web-based, and offer create, read, update, delete(CRUD) capabilities. This allows new applications to be built on acommon application infrastructure.

The aPaaS system may support standardized application components, suchas a standardized set of widgets for graphical user interface (GUI)development. In this way, applications built using the aPaaS system havea common look and feel. Other software components and modules may bestandardized as well. In some cases, this look and feel can be brandedor skinned with an enterprise's custom logos and/or color schemes.

The aPaaS system may support the ability to configure the behavior ofapplications using metadata. This allows application behaviors to berapidly adapted to meet specific needs. Such an approach reducesdevelopment time and increases flexibility. Further, the aPaaS systemmay support GUI tools that facilitate metadata creation and management,thus reducing errors in the metadata.

The aPaaS system may support clearly-defined interfaces betweenapplications, so that software developers can avoid unwantedinter-application dependencies. Thus, the aPaaS system may implement aservice layer in which persistent state information and other data isstored.

The aPaaS system may support a rich set of integration features so thatthe applications thereon can interact with legacy applications andthird-party applications. For instance, the aPaaS system may support acustom employee-onboarding system that integrates with legacy HR, IT,and accounting systems.

The aPaaS system may support enterprise-grade security. Furthermore,since the aPaaS system may be remotely hosted, it should also utilizesecurity procedures when it interacts with systems in the enterprise orthird-party networks and services hosted outside of the enterprise. Forexample, the aPaaS system may be configured to share data amongst theenterprise and other parties to detect and identify common securitythreats.

Other features, functionality, and advantages of an aPaaS system mayexist. This description is for purpose of example and is not intended tobe limiting.

As an example of the aPaaS development process, a software developer maybe tasked to create a new application using the aPaaS system. First, thedeveloper may define the data model, which specifies the types of datathat the application uses and the relationships therebetween. Then, viaa GUI of the aPaaS system, the developer enters (e.g., uploads) the datamodel. The aPaaS system automatically creates all of the correspondingdatabase tables, fields, and relationships, which can then be accessedvia an object-oriented services layer.

In addition, the aPaaS system can also build a fully-functional MVCapplication with client-side interfaces and server-side CRUD logic. Thisgenerated application may serve as the basis of further development forthe user. Advantageously, the developer does not have to spend a largeamount of time on basic application functionality. Further, since theapplication may be web-based, it can be accessed from anyInternet-enabled client device. Alternatively or additionally, a localcopy of the application may be able to be accessed, for instance, whenInternet service is not available.

The aPaaS system may also support a rich set of pre-definedfunctionality that can be added to applications. These features includesupport for searching, email, templating, workflow design, reporting,analytics, social media, scripting, mobile-friendly output, andcustomized GUIs.

The following embodiments describe architectural and functional aspectsof example aPaaS systems, as well as the features and advantagesthereof.

II. EXAMPLE COMPUTING DEVICES AND CLOUD-BASED COMPUTING ENVIRONMENTS

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram exemplifying a computing device100, illustrating some of the components that could be included in acomputing device arranged to operate in accordance with the embodimentsherein. Computing device 100 could be a client device (e.g., a deviceactively operated by a user), a server device (e.g., a device thatprovides computational services to client devices), or some other typeof computational platform. Some server devices may operate as clientdevices from time to time in order to perform particular operations, andsome client devices may incorporate server features.

In this example, computing device 100 includes processor 102, memory104, network interface 106, and an input/output unit 108, all of whichmay be coupled by a system bus 110 or a similar mechanism. In someembodiments, computing device 100 may include other components and/orperipheral devices (e.g., detachable storage, printers, and so on).

Processor 102 may be one or more of any type of computer processingelement, such as a central processing unit (CPU), a co-processor (e.g.,a mathematics, graphics, or encryption co-processor), a digital signalprocessor (DSP), a network processor, and/or a form of integratedcircuit or controller that performs processor operations. In some cases,processor 102 may be one or more single-core processors. In other cases,processor 102 may be one or more multi-core processors with multipleindependent processing units. Processor 102 may also include registermemory for temporarily storing instructions being executed and relateddata, as well as cache memory for temporarily storing recently-usedinstructions and data.

Memory 104 may be any form of computer-usable memory, including but notlimited to random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), andnon-volatile memory (e.g., flash memory, hard disk drives, solid statedrives, compact discs (CDs), digital video discs (DVDs), and/or tapestorage). Thus, memory 104 represents both main memory units, as well aslong-term storage. Other types of memory may include biological memory.

Memory 104 may store program instructions and/or data on which programinstructions may operate. By way of example, memory 104 may store theseprogram instructions on a non-transitory, computer-readable medium, suchthat the instructions are executable by processor 102 to carry out anyof the methods, processes, or operations disclosed in this specificationor the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, memory 104 may include firmware 104A, kernel 104B,and/or applications 104C. Firmware 104A may be program code used to bootor otherwise initiate some or all of computing device 100. Kernel 104Bmay be an operating system, including modules for memory management,scheduling and management of processes, input/output, and communication.Kernel 104B may also include device drivers that allow the operatingsystem to communicate with the hardware modules (e.g., memory units,networking interfaces, ports, and busses), of computing device 100.Applications 104C may be one or more user-space software programs, suchas web browsers or email clients, as well as any software libraries usedby these programs. Memory 104 may also store data used by these andother programs and applications.

Network interface 106 may take the form of one or more wirelineinterfaces, such as Ethernet (e.g., Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, andso on). Network interface 106 may also support communication over one ormore non-Ethernet media, such as coaxial cables or power lines, or overwide-area media, such as Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET) ordigital subscriber line (DSL) technologies. Network interface 106 mayadditionally take the form of one or more wireless interfaces, such asIEEE 802.11 (Wifi), BLUETOOTH®, global positioning system (GPS), or awide-area wireless interface. However, other forms of physical layerinterfaces and other types of standard or proprietary communicationprotocols may be used over network interface 106. Furthermore, networkinterface 106 may comprise multiple physical interfaces. For instance,some embodiments of computing device 100 may include Ethernet,BLUETOOTH®, and Wifi interfaces.

Input/output unit 108 may facilitate user and peripheral deviceinteraction with example computing device 100. Input/output unit 108 mayinclude one or more types of input devices, such as a keyboard, a mouse,a touch screen, and so on. Similarly, input/output unit 108 may includeone or more types of output devices, such as a screen, monitor, printer,and/or one or more light emitting diodes (LEDs). Additionally oralternatively, computing device 100 may communicate with other devicesusing a universal serial bus (USB) or high-definition multimediainterface (HDMI) port interface, for example.

In some embodiments, one or more instances of computing device 100 maybe deployed to support an aPaaS architecture. The exact physicallocation, connectivity, and configuration of these computing devices maybe unknown and/or unimportant to client devices. Accordingly, thecomputing devices may be referred to as “cloud-based” devices that maybe housed at various remote data center locations.

FIG. 2 depicts a cloud-based server cluster 200 in accordance withexample embodiments. In FIG. 2, operations of a computing device (e.g.,computing device 100) may be distributed between server devices 202,data storage 204, and routers 206, all of which may be connected bylocal cluster network 208. The number of server devices 202, datastorages 204, and routers 206 in server cluster 200 may depend on thecomputing task(s) and/or applications assigned to server cluster 200.

For example, server devices 202 can be configured to perform variouscomputing tasks of computing device 100. Thus, computing tasks can bedistributed among one or more of server devices 202. To the extent thatthese computing tasks can be performed in parallel, such a distributionof tasks may reduce the total time to complete these tasks and return aresult. For purpose of simplicity, both server cluster 200 andindividual server devices 202 may be referred to as a “server device.”This nomenclature should be understood to imply that one or moredistinct server devices, data storage devices, and cluster routers maybe involved in server device operations.

Data storage 204 may be data storage arrays that include drive arraycontrollers configured to manage read and write access to groups of harddisk drives and/or solid state drives. The drive array controllers,alone or in conjunction with server devices 202, may also be configuredto manage backup or redundant copies of the data stored in data storage204 to protect against drive failures or other types of failures thatprevent one or more of server devices 202 from accessing units ofcluster data storage 204. Other types of memory aside from drives may beused.

Routers 206 may include networking equipment configured to provideinternal and external communications for server cluster 200. Forexample, routers 206 may include one or more packet-switching and/orrouting devices (including switches and/or gateways) configured toprovide (i) network communications between server devices 202 and datastorage 204 via cluster network 208, and/or (ii) network communicationsbetween the server cluster 200 and other devices via communication link210 to network 212.

Additionally, the configuration of cluster routers 206 can be based atleast in part on the data communication requirements of server devices202 and data storage 204, the latency and throughput of the localcluster network 208, the latency, throughput, and cost of communicationlink 210, and/or other factors that may contribute to the cost, speed,fault-tolerance, resiliency, efficiency and/or other design goals of thesystem architecture.

As a possible example, data storage 204 may include any form ofdatabase, such as a structured query language (SQL) database. Varioustypes of data structures may store the information in such a database,including but not limited to tables, arrays, lists, trees, and tuples.Furthermore, any databases in data storage 204 may be monolithic ordistributed across multiple physical devices.

Server devices 202 may be configured to transmit data to and receivedata from cluster data storage 204. This transmission and retrieval maytake the form of SQL queries or other types of database queries, and theoutput of such queries, respectively. Additional text, images, video,and/or audio may be included as well. Furthermore, server devices 202may organize the received data into web page representations. Such arepresentation may take the form of a markup language, such as thehypertext markup language (HTML), the extensible markup language (XML),or some other standardized or proprietary format. Moreover, serverdevices 202 may have the capability of executing various types ofcomputerized scripting languages, such as but not limited to Perl,Python, PHP Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP), Active Server Pages (ASP),JavaScript, and so on. Computer program code written in these languagesmay facilitate the providing of web pages to client devices, as well asclient device interaction with the web pages.

III. EXAMPLE REMOTE NETWORK MANAGEMENT ARCHITECTURE

FIG. 3 depicts a remote network management architecture, in accordancewith example embodiments. This architecture includes three maincomponents, managed network 300, remote network management platform 320,and third-party networks 340, all connected by way of Internet 350.

Managed network 300 may be, for example, an enterprise network used byan entity for computing and communications tasks, as well as storage ofdata. Thus, managed network 300 may include various client devices 302,server devices 304, routers 306, virtual machines 308, firewall 310,and/or proxy servers 312. Client devices 302 may be embodied bycomputing device 100, server devices 304 may be embodied by computingdevice 100 or server cluster 200, and routers 306 may be any type ofrouter, switch, or gateway.

Virtual machines 308 may be embodied by one or more of computing device100 or server cluster 200. In general, a virtual machine is an emulationof a computing system, and mimics the functionality (e.g., processor,memory, and communication resources) of a physical computer. Onephysical computing system, such as server cluster 200, may support up tothousands of individual virtual machines. In some embodiments, virtualmachines 308 may be managed by a centralized server device orapplication that facilitates allocation of physical computing resourcesto individual virtual machines, as well as performance and errorreporting. Enterprises often employ virtual machines in order toallocate computing resources in an efficient, as needed fashion.Providers of virtualized computing systems include VMWARE® andMICROSOFT®.

Firewall 310 may be one or more specialized routers or server devicesthat protect managed network 300 from unauthorized attempts to accessthe devices, applications, and services therein, while allowingauthorized communication that is initiated from managed network 300.Firewall 310 may also provide intrusion detection, web filtering, virusscanning, application-layer gateways, and other applications orservices. In some embodiments not shown in FIG. 3, managed network 300may include one or more virtual private network (VPN) gateways withwhich it communicates with remote network management platform 320 (seebelow).

Managed network 300 may also include one or more proxy servers 312. Anembodiment of proxy servers 312 may be a server device that facilitatescommunication and movement of data between managed network 300, remotenetwork management platform 320, and third-party networks 340. Inparticular, proxy servers 312 may be able to establish and maintainsecure communication sessions with one or more computational instancesof remote network management platform 320. By way of such a session,remote network management platform 320 may be able to discover andmanage aspects of the architecture and configuration of managed network300 and its components. Possibly with the assistance of proxy servers312, remote network management platform 320 may also be able to discoverand manage aspects of third-party networks 340 that are used by managednetwork 300.

Firewalls, such as firewall 310, typically deny all communicationsessions that are incoming by way of Internet 350, unless such a sessionwas ultimately initiated from behind the firewall (i.e., from a deviceon managed network 300) or the firewall has been explicitly configuredto support the session. By placing proxy servers 312 behind firewall 310(e.g., within managed network 300 and protected by firewall 310), proxyservers 312 may be able to initiate these communication sessions throughfirewall 310. Thus, firewall 310 might not have to be specificallyconfigured to support incoming sessions from remote network managementplatform 320, thereby avoiding potential security risks to managednetwork 300.

In some cases, managed network 300 may consist of a few devices and asmall number of networks. In other deployments, managed network 300 mayspan multiple physical locations and include hundreds of networks andhundreds of thousands of devices. Thus, the architecture depicted inFIG. 3 is capable of scaling up or down by orders of magnitude.

Furthermore, depending on the size, architecture, and connectivity ofmanaged network 300, a varying number of proxy servers 312 may bedeployed therein. For example, each one of proxy servers 312 may beresponsible for communicating with remote network management platform320 regarding a portion of managed network 300. Alternatively oradditionally, sets of two or more proxy servers may be assigned to sucha portion of managed network 300 for purposes of load balancing,redundancy, and/or high availability.

Remote network management platform 320 is a hosted environment thatprovides aPaaS services to users, particularly to the operators ofmanaged network 300. These services may take the form of web-basedportals, for instance. Thus, a user can securely access remote networkmanagement platform 320 from, for instance, client devices 302, orpotentially from a client device outside of managed network 300. By wayof the web-based portals, users may design, test, and deployapplications, generate reports, view analytics, and perform other tasks.

As shown in FIG. 3, remote network management platform 320 includes fourcomputational instances 322, 324, 326, and 328. Each of these instancesmay represent a set of web portals, services, and applications (e.g., awholly-functioning aPaaS system) available to a particular customer. Insome cases, a single customer may use multiple computational instances.For example, managed network 300 may be an enterprise customer of remotenetwork management platform 320, and may use computational instances322, 324, and 326. The reason for providing multiple instances to onecustomer is that the customer may wish to independently develop, test,and deploy its applications and services. Thus, computational instance322 may be dedicated to application development related to managednetwork 300, computational instance 324 may be dedicated to testingthese applications, and computational instance 326 may be dedicated tothe live operation of tested applications and services. A computationalinstance may also be referred to as a hosted instance, a remoteinstance, a customer instance, or by some other designation.

The multi-instance architecture of remote network management platform320 is in contrast to conventional multi-tenant architectures, overwhich multi-instance architectures have several advantages. Inmulti-tenant architectures, data from different customers (e.g.,enterprises) are comingled in a single database. While these customers'data are separate from one another, the separation is enforced by thesoftware that operates the single database. As a consequence, a securitybreach in this system may impact all customers' data, creatingadditional risk, especially for entities subject to governmental,healthcare, and/or financial regulation. Furthermore, any databaseoperations that impact one customer will likely impact all customerssharing that database. Thus, if there is an outage due to hardware orsoftware errors, this outage affects all such customers. Likewise, ifthe database is to be upgraded to meet the needs of one customer, itwill be unavailable to all customers during the upgrade process. Often,such maintenance windows will be long, due to the size of the shareddatabase.

In contrast, the multi-instance architecture provides each customer withits own database in a dedicated computing instance. This preventscomingling of customer data, and allows each instance to beindependently managed. For example, when one customer's instanceexperiences an outage due to errors or an upgrade, other computationalinstances are not impacted. Maintenance down time is limited because thedatabase only contains one customer's data. Further, the simpler designof the multi-instance architecture allows redundant copies of eachcustomer database and instance to be deployed in a geographicallydiverse fashion. This facilitates high availability, where the liveversion of the customer's instance can be moved when faults are detectedor maintenance is being performed.

In order to support multiple computational instances in an efficientfashion, remote network management platform 320 may implement aplurality of these instances on a single hardware platform. For example,when the aPaaS system is implemented on a server cluster such as servercluster 200, it may operate a virtual machine that dedicates varyingamounts of computational, storage, and communication resources toinstances. But full virtualization of server cluster 200 might not benecessary, and other mechanisms may be used to separate instances. Insome examples, each instance may have a dedicated account and one ormore dedicated databases on server cluster 200. Alternatively,computational instance 322 may span multiple physical devices.

In some cases, a single server cluster of remote network managementplatform 320 may support multiple independent enterprises. Furthermore,as described below, remote network management platform 320 may includemultiple server clusters deployed in geographically diverse data centersin order to facilitate load balancing, redundancy, and/or highavailability.

Third-party networks 340 may be remote server devices (e.g., a pluralityof server clusters such as server cluster 200) that can be used foroutsourced computational, data storage, communication, and servicehosting operations. These servers may be virtualized (i.e., the serversmay be virtual machines). Examples of third-party networks 340 mayinclude AMAZON WEB SERVICES® and MICROSOFT® Azure. Like remote networkmanagement platform 320, multiple server clusters supporting third-partynetworks 340 may be deployed at geographically diverse locations forpurposes of load balancing, redundancy, and/or high availability.

Managed network 300 may use one or more of third-party networks 340 todeploy applications and services to its clients and customers. Forinstance, if managed network 300 provides online music streamingservices, third-party networks 340 may store the music files and provideweb interface and streaming capabilities. In this way, the enterprise ofmanaged network 300 does not have to build and maintain its own serversfor these operations.

Remote network management platform 320 may include modules thatintegrate with third-party networks 340 to expose virtual machines andmanaged services therein to managed network 300. The modules may allowusers to request virtual resources and provide flexible reporting forthird-party networks 340. In order to establish this functionality, auser from managed network 300 might first establish an account withthird-party networks 340, and request a set of associated resources.Then, the user may enter the account information into the appropriatemodules of remote network management platform 320. These modules maythen automatically discover the manageable resources in the account, andalso provide reports related to usage, performance, and billing.

Internet 350 may represent a portion of the global Internet. However,Internet 350 may alternatively represent a different type of network,such as a private wide-area or local-area packet-switched network.

FIG. 4 further illustrates the communication environment between managednetwork 300 and computational instance 322, and introduces additionalfeatures and alternative embodiments. In FIG. 4, computational instance322 is replicated across data centers 400A and 400B. These data centersmay be geographically distant from one another, perhaps in differentcities or different countries. Each data center includes supportequipment that facilitates communication with managed network 300, aswell as remote users.

In data center 400A, network traffic to and from external devices flowseither through VPN gateway 402A or firewall 404A. VPN gateway 402A maybe peered with VPN gateway 412 of managed network 300 by way of asecurity protocol such as Internet Protocol Security (IPSEC) orTransport Layer Security (TLS). Firewall 404A may be configured to allowaccess from authorized users, such as user 414 and remote user 416, andto deny access to unauthorized users. By way of firewall 404A, theseusers may access computational instance 322, and possibly othercomputational instances. Load balancer 406A may be used to distributetraffic amongst one or more physical or virtual server devices that hostcomputational instance 322. Load balancer 406A may simplify user accessby hiding the internal configuration of data center 400A, (e.g.,computational instance 322) from client devices. For instance, ifcomputational instance 322 includes multiple physical or virtualcomputing devices that share access to multiple databases, load balancer406A may distribute network traffic and processing tasks across thesecomputing devices and databases so that no one computing device ordatabase is significantly busier than the others. In some embodiments,computational instance 322 may include VPN gateway 402A, firewall 404A,and load balancer 406A.

Data center 400B may include its own versions of the components in datacenter 400A. Thus, VPN gateway 402B, firewall 404B, and load balancer406B may perform the same or similar operations as VPN gateway 402A,firewall 404A, and load balancer 406A, respectively. Further, by way ofreal-time or near-real-time database replication and/or otheroperations, computational instance 322 may exist simultaneously in datacenters 400A and 400B.

Data centers 400A and 400B as shown in FIG. 4 may facilitate redundancyand high availability. In the configuration of FIG. 4, data center 400Ais active and data center 400B is passive. Thus, data center 400A isserving all traffic to and from managed network 300, while the versionof computational instance 322 in data center 400B is being updated innear-real-time. Other configurations, such as one in which both datacenters are active, may be supported.

Should data center 400A fail in some fashion or otherwise becomeunavailable to users, data center 400B can take over as the active datacenter. For example, domain name system (DNS) servers that associate adomain name of computational instance 322 with one or more InternetProtocol (IP) addresses of data center 400A may re-associate the domainname with one or more IP addresses of data center 400B. After thisre-association completes (which may take less than one second or severalseconds), users may access computational instance 322 by way of datacenter 400B.

FIG. 4 also illustrates a possible configuration of managed network 300.As noted above, proxy servers 312 and user 414 may access computationalinstance 322 through firewall 310. Proxy servers 312 may also accessconfiguration items 410. In FIG. 4, configuration items 410 may refer toany or all of client devices 302, server devices 304, routers 306, andvirtual machines 308, any applications or services executing thereon, aswell as relationships between devices, applications, and services. Thus,the term “configuration items” may be shorthand for any physical orvirtual device, or any application or service remotely discoverable ormanaged by computational instance 322, or relationships betweendiscovered devices, applications, and services. Configuration items maybe represented in a configuration management database (CMDB) ofcomputational instance 322.

As noted above, VPN gateway 412 may provide a dedicated VPN to VPNgateway 402A. Such a VPN may be helpful when there is a significantamount of traffic between managed network 300 and computational instance322, or security policies otherwise suggest or require use of a VPNbetween these sites. In some embodiments, any device in managed network300 and/or computational instance 322 that directly communicates via theVPN is assigned a public IP address. Other devices in managed network300 and/or computational instance 322 may be assigned private IPaddresses (e.g., IP addresses selected from the 10.0.0.0-10.255.255.255or 192.168.0.0-192.168.255.255 ranges, represented in shorthand assubnets 10.0.0.0/8 and 192.168.0.0/16, respectively).

IV. EXAMPLE DEVICE, APPLICATION, AND SERVICE DISCOVERY

In order for remote network management platform 320 to administer thedevices, applications, and services of managed network 300, remotenetwork management platform 320 may first determine what devices arepresent in managed network 300, the configurations and operationalstatuses of these devices, and the applications and services provided bythe devices, and well as the relationships between discovered devices,applications, and services. As noted above, each device, application,service, and relationship may be referred to as a configuration item.The process of defining configuration items within managed network 300is referred to as discovery, and may be facilitated at least in part byproxy servers 312.

For purpose of the embodiments herein, an “application” may refer to oneor more processes, threads, programs, client modules, server modules, orany other software that executes on a device or group of devices. A“service” may refer to a high-level capability provided by multipleapplications executing on one or more devices working in conjunctionwith one another. For example, a high-level web service may involvemultiple web application server threads executing on one device andaccessing information from a database application that executes onanother device.

FIG. 5A provides a logical depiction of how configuration items can bediscovered, as well as how information related to discoveredconfiguration items can be stored. For sake of simplicity, remotenetwork management platform 320, third-party networks 340, and Internet350 are not shown.

In FIG. 5A, CMDB 500 and task list 502 are stored within computationalinstance 322. Computational instance 322 may transmit discovery commandsto proxy servers 312. In response, proxy servers 312 may transmit probesto various devices, applications, and services in managed network 300.These devices, applications, and services may transmit responses toproxy servers 312, and proxy servers 312 may then provide informationregarding discovered configuration items to CMDB 500 for storagetherein. Configuration items stored in CMDB 500 represent theenvironment of managed network 300.

Task list 502 represents a list of activities that proxy servers 312 areto perform on behalf of computational instance 322. As discovery takesplace, task list 502 is populated. Proxy servers 312 repeatedly querytask list 502, obtain the next task therein, and perform this task untiltask list 502 is empty or another stopping condition has been reached.

To facilitate discovery, proxy servers 312 may be configured withinformation regarding one or more subnets in managed network 300 thatare reachable by way of proxy servers 312. For instance, proxy servers312 may be given the IP address range 192.168.0/24 as a subnet. Then,computational instance 322 may store this information in CMDB 500 andplace tasks in task list 502 for discovery of devices at each of theseaddresses.

FIG. 5A also depicts devices, applications, and services in managednetwork 300 as configuration items 504, 506, 508, 510, and 512. As notedabove, these configuration items represent a set of physical and/orvirtual devices (e.g., client devices, server devices, routers, orvirtual machines), applications executing thereon (e.g., web servers,email servers, databases, or storage arrays), relationshipstherebetween, as well as services that involve multiple individualconfiguration items.

Placing the tasks in task list 502 may trigger or otherwise cause proxyservers 312 to begin discovery. Alternatively or additionally, discoverymay be manually triggered or automatically triggered based on triggeringevents (e.g., discovery may automatically begin once per day at aparticular time).

In general, discovery may proceed in four logical phases: scanning,classification, identification, and exploration. Each phase of discoveryinvolves various types of probe messages being transmitted by proxyservers 312 to one or more devices in managed network 300. The responsesto these probes may be received and processed by proxy servers 312, andrepresentations thereof may be transmitted to CMDB 500. Thus, each phasecan result in more configuration items being discovered and stored inCMDB 500.

In the scanning phase, proxy servers 312 may probe each IP address inthe specified range of IP addresses for open Transmission ControlProtocol (TCP) and/or User Datagram Protocol (UDP) ports to determinethe general type of device. The presence of such open ports at an IPaddress may indicate that a particular application is operating on thedevice that is assigned the IP address, which in turn may identify theoperating system used by the device. For example, if TCP port 135 isopen, then the device is likely executing a WINDOWS® operating system.Similarly, if TCP port 22 is open, then the device is likely executing aUNIX® operating system, such as LINUX®. If UDP port 161 is open, thenthe device may be able to be further identified through the SimpleNetwork Management Protocol (SNMP). Other possibilities exist. Once thepresence of a device at a particular IP address and its open ports havebeen discovered, these configuration items are saved in CMDB 500.

In the classification phase, proxy servers 312 may further probe eachdiscovered device to determine the version of its operating system. Theprobes used for a particular device are based on information gatheredabout the devices during the scanning phase. For example, if a device isfound with TCP port 22 open, a set of UNIX®-specific probes may be used.Likewise, if a device is found with TCP port 135 open, a set ofWINDOWS®-specific probes may be used. For either case, an appropriateset of tasks may be placed in task list 502 for proxy servers 312 tocarry out. These tasks may result in proxy servers 312 logging on, orotherwise accessing information from the particular device. Forinstance, if TCP port 22 is open, proxy servers 312 may be instructed toinitiate a Secure Shell (SSH) connection to the particular device andobtain information about the operating system thereon from particularlocations in the file system. Based on this information, the operatingsystem may be determined. As an example, a UNIX® device with TCP port 22open may be classified as AIX®, HPUX, LINUX®, MACOS®, or SOLARIS®. Thisclassification information may be stored as one or more configurationitems in CMDB 500.

In the identification phase, proxy servers 312 may determine specificdetails about a classified device. The probes used during this phase maybe based on information gathered about the particular devices during theclassification phase. For example, if a device was classified as LINUX®,a set of LINUX®-specific probes may be used. Likewise if a device wasclassified as WINDOWS® 2012, as a set of WINDOWS®-2012-specific probesmay be used. As was the case for the classification phase, anappropriate set of tasks may be placed in task list 502 for proxyservers 312 to carry out. These tasks may result in proxy servers 312reading information from the particular device, such as basicinput/output system (BIOS) information, serial numbers, networkinterface information, media access control address(es) assigned tothese network interface(s), IP address(es) used by the particular deviceand so on. This identification information may be stored as one or moreconfiguration items in CMDB 500.

In the exploration phase, proxy servers 312 may determine furtherdetails about the operational state of a classified device. The probesused during this phase may be based on information gathered about theparticular devices during the classification phase and/or theidentification phase. Again, an appropriate set of tasks may be placedin task list 502 for proxy servers 312 to carry out. These tasks mayresult in proxy servers 312 reading additional information from theparticular device, such as processor information, memory information,lists of running processes (applications), and so on. Once more, thediscovered information may be stored as one or more configuration itemsin CMDB 500.

Running discovery on a network device, such as a router, may utilizeSNMP. Instead of or in addition to determining a list of runningprocesses or other application-related information, discovery maydetermine additional subnets known to the router and the operationalstate of the router's network interfaces (e.g., active, inactive, queuelength, number of packets dropped, etc.). The IP addresses of theadditional subnets may be candidates for further discovery procedures.Thus, discovery may progress iteratively or recursively.

Once discovery completes, a snapshot representation of each discovereddevice, application, and service is available in CMDB 500. For example,after discovery, operating system version, hardware configuration andnetwork configuration details for client devices, server devices, androuters in managed network 300, as well as applications executingthereon, may be stored. This collected information may be presented to auser in various ways to allow the user to view the hardware compositionand operational status of devices, as well as the characteristics ofservices that span multiple devices and applications.

Furthermore, CMDB 500 may include entries regarding dependencies andrelationships between configuration items. More specifically, anapplication that is executing on a particular server device, as well asthe services that rely on this application, may be represented as suchin CMDB 500. For instance, suppose that a database application isexecuting on a server device, and that this database application is usedby a new employee onboarding service as well as a payroll service. Thus,if the server device is taken out of operation for maintenance, it isclear that the employee onboarding service and payroll service will beimpacted. Likewise, the dependencies and relationships betweenconfiguration items may be able to represent the services impacted whena particular router fails.

In general, dependencies and relationships between configuration itemsbe displayed on a web-based interface and represented in a hierarchicalfashion. Thus, adding, changing, or removing such dependencies andrelationships may be accomplished by way of this interface.

Furthermore, users from managed network 300 may develop workflows thatallow certain coordinated activities to take place across multiplediscovered devices. For instance, an IT workflow might allow the user tochange the common administrator password to all discovered LINUX®devices in single operation.

In order for discovery to take place in the manner described above,proxy servers 312, CMDB 500, and/or one or more credential stores may beconfigured with credentials for one or more of the devices to bediscovered. Credentials may include any type of information needed inorder to access the devices. These may include userid/password pairs,certificates, and so on. In some embodiments, these credentials may bestored in encrypted fields of CMDB 500. Proxy servers 312 may containthe decryption key for the credentials so that proxy servers 312 can usethese credentials to log on to or otherwise access devices beingdiscovered.

The discovery process is depicted as a flow chart in FIG. 5B. At block520, the task list in the computational instance is populated, forinstance, with a range of IP addresses. At block 522, the scanning phasetakes place. Thus, the proxy servers probe the IP addresses for devicesusing these IP addresses, and attempt to determine the operating systemsthat are executing on these devices. At block 524, the classificationphase takes place. The proxy servers attempt to determine the operatingsystem version of the discovered devices. At block 526, theidentification phase takes place. The proxy servers attempt to determinethe hardware and/or software configuration of the discovered devices. Atblock 528, the exploration phase takes place. The proxy servers attemptto determine the operational state and applications executing on thediscovered devices. At block 530, further editing of the configurationitems representing the discovered devices and applications may takeplace. This editing may be automated and/or manual in nature.

The blocks represented in FIG. 5B are for purpose of example. Discoverymay be a highly configurable procedure that can have more or fewerphases, and the operations of each phase may vary. In some cases, one ormore phases may be customized, or may otherwise deviate from theexemplary descriptions above.

V. CMDB IDENTIFICATION RULES AND RECONCILIATION

A CMDB, such as CMDB 500, provides a repository of configuration items,and when properly provisioned, can take on a key role in higher-layerapplications deployed within or involving a computational instance.These applications may relate to enterprise IT service management,operations management, asset management, configuration management,compliance, and so on.

For example, an IT service management application may use information inthe CMDB to determine applications and services that may be impacted bya component (e.g., a server device) that has malfunctioned, crashed, oris heavily loaded. Likewise, an asset management application may useinformation in the CMDB to determine which hardware and/or softwarecomponents are being used to support particular enterprise applications.As a consequence of the importance of the CMDB, it is desirable for theinformation stored therein to be accurate, consistent, and up to date.

A CMDB may be populated in various ways. As discussed above, a discoveryprocedure may automatically store information related to configurationitems in the CMDB. However, a CMDB can also be populated, as a whole orin part, by manual entry, configuration files, and third-party datasources. Given that multiple data sources may be able to update the CMDBat any time, it is possible that one data source may overwrite entriesof another data source. Also, two data sources may each create slightlydifferent entries for the same configuration item, resulting in a CMDBcontaining duplicate data. When either of these occurrences takes place,they can cause the health and utility of the CMDB to be reduced.

In order to mitigate this situation, these data sources might not writeconfiguration items directly to the CMDB. Instead, they may write to anidentification and reconciliation application programming interface(API). This API may use a set of configurable identification rules thatcan be used to uniquely identify configuration items and determinewhether and how they are written to the CMDB.

In general, an identification rule specifies a set of configuration itemattributes that can be used for this unique identification.Identification rules may also have priorities so that rules with higherpriorities are considered before rules with lower priorities.Additionally, a rule may be independent, in that the rule identifiesconfiguration items independently of other configuration items.Alternatively, the rule may be dependent, in that the rule first uses ametadata rule to identify a dependent configuration item.

Metadata rules describe which other configuration items are containedwithin a particular configuration item, or the host on which aparticular configuration item is deployed. For example, a networkdirectory service configuration item may contain a domain controllerconfiguration item, while a web server application configuration itemmay be hosted on a server device configuration item.

A goal of each identification rule is to use a combination of attributesthat can unambiguously distinguish a configuration item from all otherconfiguration items, and is expected not to change during the lifetimeof the configuration item. Some possible attributes for an exampleserver device may include serial number, location, operating system,operating system version, memory capacity, and so on. If a rulespecifies attributes that do not uniquely identify the configurationitem, then multiple components may be represented as the sameconfiguration item in the CMDB. Also, if a rule specifies attributesthat change for a particular configuration item, duplicate configurationitems may be created.

Thus, when a data source provides information regarding a configurationitem to the identification and reconciliation API, the API may attemptto match the information with one or more rules. If a match is found,the configuration item is written to the CMDB. If a match is not found,the configuration item may be held for further analysis.

Configuration item reconciliation procedures may be used to ensure thatonly authoritative data sources are allowed to overwrite configurationitem data in the CMDB. This reconciliation may also be rules-based. Forinstance, a reconciliation rule may specify that a particular datasource is authoritative for a particular configuration item type and setof attributes. Then, the identification and reconciliation API will onlypermit this authoritative data source to write to the particularconfiguration item, and writes from unauthorized data sources may beprevented. Thus, the authorized data source becomes the single source oftruth regarding the particular configuration item. In some cases, anunauthorized data source may be allowed to write to a configuration itemif it is creating the configuration item or the attributes to which itis writing are empty.

Additionally, multiple data sources may be authoritative for the sameconfiguration item or attributes thereof. To avoid ambiguities, thesedata sources may be assigned precedences that are taken into accountduring the writing of configuration items. For example, a secondaryauthorized data source may be able to write to a configuration item'sattribute until a primary authorized data source writes to thisattribute. Afterward, further writes to the attribute by the secondaryauthorized data source may be prevented.

In some cases, duplicate configuration items may be automaticallydetected by reconciliation procedures or in another fashion. Theseconfiguration items may be flagged for manual de-duplication.

VI. EXAMPLE SERVICE MAPPING

Service mapping may involve a computational instance obtaininginformation related to sets of interconnected computing devices andapplications, operating on a managed network, that are configured toprovide a service. This service may either be provided internally to themanaged network (e.g., an organizational email service) or externally tocustomers of the managed network (e.g., an external web site). Servicemapping builds viewable maps of the configuration items (e.g., thecomputing devices, applications, and any related configurationinformation or profiles) used to provide the service. Dependenciesbetween these configuration items may be based on relationships betweenthe computing devices and applications.

Thus, a service map may be a visual representation on a web-based GUI,for instance, that depicts particular applications operating onparticular computing devices in the managed network as nodes in a graph.The links of the graph may represent physical and/or logical networkconnectivity between these nodes. This visual representation allowsusers to rapidly determine the impact of a problematic configurationitem on the rest of the service. For instance, rather than viewing, inisolation, the properties of a database application, this applicationcan be represented as having connections to other applications and thecomputing devices that rely upon or support the application. Thus, ifthe database is exhibiting a problem (e.g., running out of storagecapacity), the impacted service(s) can be efficiently determined.

Discovery procedures may be used, at least in part, to determine therelationships between computing devices and applications that defineservices. Alternatively or additionally, services and/or componentsthereof may be manually defined after discovery has at least partiallycompleted. From this information, a service map can be derived.

VII. EXAMPLE DISCOVERY AND SERVICE MAPPING OF SERVERLESS RESOURCES

Generally, traditional discovery procedures have lacked the ability tohelp with discovery of “serverless resources”. In particular,traditional discovery procedures involve finding a device and loggingonto the device to determine applications and/or other services thatcould run on it. However, in some situations, applications and/or otherservices may be serverless resources, as there may not be any specificcomputing resources (e.g., a computing device) dedicated to execution ofsuch applications and/or other services. For example, a unit ofprogrammatic code may be remotely hosted, on behalf of a managednetwork, for on demand execution on a third-party computing system, andthe third-party computing system may not have any specific computingresources dedicated to execution of a program using the unit ofprogrammatic code. Herein, the term “unit of programmatic code” mayrefer to any type of program code related to software or programming.Nonetheless, because there may not be any specific computing resourcesdedicated to execution of certain applications and/or other services,traditional discovery procedures may not discover such applicationsand/or other services.

Disclosed herein is a software application that can discover serverlessresources, as the software application may be configured to carry outdiscovery procedure(s) that do not require finding and logging ontodevice(s). Given this, the software application may be configured todiscover and store information about respective relationship(s) betweena unit of programmatic code remotely hosted for execution on athird-party computing system and other service(s) provided by thethird-party computing system and/or by another computing system, so asto help facilitate service mapping. The software application maydiscover such relationship(s) even if the third-party computing systemdoes not have any specific computing resources dedicated to execution ofa program using the unit of programmatic code. Thus, the softwareapplication could provide information to an enterprise that may help theenterprise better assess its managed network's usage of variousservices.

FIG. 6 illustrates features, components, and/or operations of acomputing system 600, of a managed network's client device 602, and of athird-party computing system 604 that provides service(s) to the managednetwork. Although FIG. 6 illustrates a specific arrangement, variousoperations disclosed herein may be carried out in the context of similarand/or other arrangement(s) as well without departing from the scope ofthe present disclosure.

Specifically, computing system 600 may include software application 606,which may help discover and store information about respectiverelationship(s) in line with the discussion above. The softwareapplication 606 may include or otherwise take the form of programinstructions executable by processor(s) of the computing system 600, soas to cause the computing system 600 to carry out various operationsdescribe herein. To that end, the software application 606 may beconfigured to execute on a server device disposed within a remotenetwork management platform, such as remote network management platform320, and/or on a server device (e.g., proxy server) disposed within amanaged network, such as the client device 602's managed network. Thus,the computing system 600 could include features and/or components of amanaged network and/or of a remote network management platform thatsupports remote management of the managed network.

Additionally, as shown, the computing system 600 may include a database608. This database 608 could be a CMDB of a computational instance, suchas CMDB 500 for example. Additionally or alternatively, database 608 maybe a database that is different from a CMDB found within the remotenetwork management platform.

Although computing system 600 is shown to include certain featuresand/or components, computing system 600 may include any feasiblecombination of features and/or components, so as to facilitate aspectsof the present disclosure. For example, the computing system 600 mayalso include one or more server devices (not shown) that engage incommunications with client device 600 and/or with the third-partycomputing system 604.

Further, as noted, FIG. 6 also illustrates a client device 602, whichmay be one of the client devices 302 on the managed network 300 forexample. Generally, the client device 602 may engage in communicationwith computing system 600, such as via wired and/or wirelesscommunication link(s) (not shown). Moreover, as shown, the client device600 may be configured to operate a web browser 610, which is anapplication that may retrieve, present, and/or navigate throughinformation on the World Wide Web and/or on private websites.

The browser 610 may include a web-display tool (not shown) that providesfor or otherwise supports display of information, such as informationreceived from computing system 600. For example, as further discussedherein, the web-display tool may display a visual representation of aservice map for service(s) provided by the third-party computing system604.

Third-party computing system 604 may provide various services 612A-612E,which may be accessible to and can be used by the client device 602'smanaged network on demand, such as via a cloud-based platform. Forexample, the third-party computing system 604 may be a computing systemof AMAZON WEB SERVICES®, which provides on demand cloud computingplatforms. Although five services are shown, any number of servicescould be provided without departing from the scope of the presentdisclosure.

Generally, services 612A-612E could each respectively take on variousforms and could each respectively provide function(s), feature(s),and/or component(s) for the benefit of the managed network. For example,services of the third-party computing system may include web-basedapplications, such as an e-mail service, a service for buildingweb-based applications, and/or a service for testing web-basedapplications, among other possibilities. In another example, third-partydatabase(s) provided by the third-party computing system could beconsidered to be a service provided by the third-party computing system,as such third-party database(s) could be used for storage of certaininformation on behalf of the managed network, among other options. Inyet another example, third-party server device(s) provided by thethird-party computing system could be considered to be a serviceprovided by the third-party computing system, as such third-party serverdevice(s) could provide processing resource(s) to carry out operationson behalf of the managed network.

In a more specific example, service 612A may allow a user to upload aunit of programmatic code 614 (hereinafter “code 614”) to thethird-party computing system 604 via the managed network (e.g., usingclient device 602), so that the code 614 is remotely hosted andexecutable by the third-party computing system 604 on behalf of themanaged network. In practice, service 612A may be, for example, the AWSLAMBDA® platform provided by AMAZON WEB SERVICES®.

Thus, the service 612A may allow an enterprise to offload resourceallocation and management of the code 614 to the third-party computingsystem. Moreover, the service 612A may help reduce usage ofcomputational resources on the managed network, as the service 612A mayeliminate the need to store the code 614 on database(s) of the managednetwork and/or to execute the code 614 using server device(s) of themanaged network.

In practice, the code 614 could take various forms. For example, thecode 614 may be or may otherwise include source code, which may be acollection of computer instructions written in one or more programminglanguages as plain text. In another example, the code 614 may be or mayotherwise include object code, which may be statements or instructionsin a computer language as produced by a compiler. In yet anotherexample, the code 614 may be or may otherwise include configurationfile, which may be a file that specifies parameters and/or initialsettings for a computer program. In yet another example, the code 614may be or may otherwise include a log file, which may be a file thatincludes records of events and/or communications that occur inassociation with certain software. In yet another example, the code 614may be or may otherwise include an environmental variable, which may bea dynamically-named variable that is mapped to other program variable(s)and that affects execution of program(s) using the code 614 inaccordance with this mapping. Other examples are also possible.

Given this, in some situations, a program on the third-party computingsystem 604 may include other executable code and may utilize at least aportion of the code 614. Whereas, in other situations, the code 614 maybe the program itself. In any case, for sake of simplicity, the presentdisclosure is described in the context of the program using the code614, which could relate to either one of these situations, among others.

Generally, a program using the code 614 may be executed in response to atrigger event. For example, the trigger event could involvetransmission, to the service 612A, of a request for the program usingthe code 614 to execute, so that an entity initiating the trigger eventand/or another entity receives certain information and/or carries outoperations as a result of execution of the program using the code 614,among other options. Such a request could also include other informationthat the program may use in accordance with the code 614 duringexecution. Other examples are also possible.

Accordingly, the trigger event at issue could be initiated by one ormore of various entities. For example, the trigger event could beinitiated by the software application 606. In another example, thetrigger event could be initiated by a different software applicationthat is associated with the remote network management platform. In yetanother example, the trigger event could be initiated by a softwareapplication associated with the third-party computing system, such as bya web-based application related to one of the services 612B-612E, forexample. In yet another example, the trigger event could be initiated bya software application operating on a client device remotely accessingthe third-party computing system 604. Other examples are also possible.

Further, the program using the code 614 may be executable by computingresources of the third-party computing system 604. These computingresources may be assigned on demand, which effectively allows themanaged network to use computing resources of the third-party computingsystem 604 on an as-needed basis for executing the remotely hosted unitof programmatic code. Given that computing resources are assigned ondemand, the third-party computing system 604 may not have any specificcomputing resources dedicated to execution of the program using the code614. Thus, the code 614 is considered to be a “serverless resource”.

Moreover, execution of the program using the code 614 may trigger usageof one or more other services, such as one or more of the services612B-612E provided by the third-party computing system 604 and/orservice(s) provided by another computing system (e.g., anotherthird-party computing system that is different from system 604). Forexample, the code 614 could trigger a request for certain informationfrom one or more of the other service(s) 612B-612E. In another example,the code 614 could trigger a transmission of certain information to oneor more of the other service(s) 612B-612E. In yet another example, thecode 614 could cause one or more of the other service(s) 612B-612E tocarry out certain operation(s). Other examples are also possible.

Because execution of the program using the code 614 may trigger usage ofone or more other service(s), it may be beneficial for various reasonsto discover respective relationship(s) between the code 614 and otherservice(s) in accordance with such usage. For example, it may bebeneficial for an enterprise to discover that code uploaded by one ofits users relates to one or more of the other service(s) 612B-612E,because usage of such other service(s) may have associated costs to theenterprise. Other examples are also possible.

However, given that the third-party computing system 604 may not haveany specific computing resources dedicated to execution of the programusing the code 614, existing service mapping approaches may not discoverthe respective relationships between the code 614 and other service(s).Therefore, the enterprise that uploaded the code 614 might otherwise beunable to ascertain these relationships.

To help address these challenges, software application 606 may beconfigured to discover and store information about respectiverelationship(s) between the code 614 and other service(s). The softwareapplication 606 may do so even if the third-party computing system 604does not have any specific computing resources dedicated to execution ofthe program using the code 614. Moreover, the software application 606may do so independently from this program being executed by computingresources of the third-party computing system 604. As such, dedicatedcomputing resources and program execution are not necessary for thesoftware application 606 to carry out such discovery and subsequentstorage of relevant and useful information about the respectiverelationship(s).

In order to discover the respective relationship(s), the softwareapplication 606 may obtain a representation 616 of the code 614, asshown in FIG. 6. In one example, the representation 616 could be a filehaving a format that is machine-readable, such as a format arranged forthe programming language in which the code 614 was written (e.g., a“.PY” file for code written in the Python programming language). Inanother example, the representation 616 could be a file having adifferent format, such as an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file or atext file, among other possibilities. Other examples are also possible.

Further, the software application 606 could obtain the representation616 in various ways. For example, the software application 606 maytransmit, to the third-party computing system 604, a request for thecode 614. The software application 606 may then receive the code 614from the third-party computing system 604 in response to the request. Ina more specific example, the software application 606 may include,communicate with, or otherwise have access to an application programminginterface (API) associated with service 612A, and thus may use an APIcall to facilitate the request. Other examples are also possible.

Moreover, the software application 606 could obtain various types ofinformation as part of and/or in addition the representation 616. Forexample, assuming that the code 614 is source code that was uploaded tothe third-party computing system 604, obtaining the representation 606may involve obtaining this source code as well as configuration file(s),log file(s), and/or environmental variable(s) that were also uploaded,manually configured, and/or that were generated as a result of executionof the source code, among other possibilities. In another example, thesoftware application 606 may obtain information about a time that thecode 614 was loaded, about a user that uploaded the code 614, and/orabout a client device of the managed network that was used to upload thecode 614, among others. Other examples are also possible.

Once the software application 606 obtains the representation 616 of thecode 614, the software application 606 may parse the code 614 for apattern indicative of respective relationships between the code 614 andservice(s) provided by the third-party computing system 604 and/or byanother computing system. To carry out such parsing, the softwareapplication 606 could include any currently available orfuture-developed parser as a software component, which could carry outpattern identification and matching based on input data (e.g.,representation 616), such as using regular expressions, among otherpossibilities.

Generally, the code 614 may include various variables that effectivelyguide execution of the code 614, and some of these variables mayindicate respective relationships between the code 614 and one or moreservices. In practice, a given variable may indicate a relationship to aservice if it is in a certain format and identifies a certain service inaccordance with that format. As such, the software application 606 mayparse the code 614 for the above-mentioned pattern by determining thatthe code 614 includes a particular variable that has a particular formatand that identifies a particular service in accordance with theparticular format.

To facilitate this, the software application 606 may have access toformatting information, which may be contained in database 608, inanother database disposed with the remote network management platformand/or in a third-party database of the third-party computing system604, among other options. In some cases, the formatting informationcould be encoded in the software application 606. In any case, thisformatting information may specify a unique format respectively for eachof a plurality of types of services provided by the third-partycomputing system 604 and/or by another computing system. Accordingly,the software application 606 may use the formatting information as basisfor determining that the code 614 includes the particular variable.

In one case, a variable indicative of a relationship to a service couldbe a universal resource locator (URL) or a fully qualified domain name(FQDN) that establishes a link from the code 614 to a particularservice, or more specifically to a particular directory within theparticular service.

For example, a URL having the format“[user].service612B.computingsystem604.com” may establish a link fromthe code 614 to service 612B shown in FIG. 6, and specifically to adirectory within service 612B related to a specific user of the managednetwork in accordance with the specific language included in the“[user]” portion of the URL. Given this, the formatting informationcould specify that a URL in this format indicates a relationship toservice 612B. Thus, if the software application 606 determines, forexample, that the code 614 includes a URL of“user123.service612B.computingsystem604.com”, then the softwareapplication 606 may determine, based on the formatting information, thatthis URL indicates a relationship between the code 614 and service 612B.A similar approach may apply in the context of an FQDN.

In another case, a variable indicative of a relationship to a servicecould be a name that identifies or establishes connectivity to aparticular service, or more specifically a particular directory withinthe particular service. In some cases, such a variable could be aresource name that identifies or establishes connectivity to a servicesuch as a particular web-based application, a particular third-partydatabase, or a particular third-party server device, among otheroptions. In other cases, such a variable could be a function name thatidentifies or establishes connectivity to another unit of programmaticcode uploaded to the third-party computing system 604.

For example, a resource name having the format “computingsystem604:service612C:[account-id]” may identify service 612C shown in FIG. 6, andspecifically identify a particular directory within service 612C relatedto a specific user of the managed network in accordance with thespecific language included in the “[account-id]” portion of the resourcename. Given this, the formatting information could specify that aresource name in this format indicates a relationship to service 612C.Thus, if the software application 606 determines, for example, that thecode 614 includes a resource name of “computingsystem604:service612C:XYZ453”, then the software application 606 may determine, based on theformatting information, that this resource name indicates a relationshipbetween the code 614 and service 612C. A similar approach may apply inthe context of function name.

In some cases, the code 614 may additionally or alternatively includeenvironmental variable(s) that respectively map to values identifyingservice(s), such as those described above, for example. In practice, agiven environmental variable may indicate a relationship to a service ifit is mapped to a value that is in a certain format and that identifiesthis service in accordance with that format. As such, the softwareapplication 606 may parse the code 614 for the above-mentioned patternby determining that the code 614 includes a particular environmentalvariable that is mapped to a particular value, and by determining thatthis particular variable has a particular format and identifies aparticular service in accordance with the particular format.

To facilitate this, the software application 606 may have access tomapping information, which may be contained in database 608, anotherdatabase disposed with the remote network management platform and/or ina third-party database of the third-party computing system 604, amongother options. This mapping information may map a plurality ofenvironmental variables to respective unique values or patterns ofvalues. Thus, the software application 606 could use this mappinginformation as basis for determining that the code 614 includes aparticular environmental variable and/or for determining the uniquevalue or pattern of values to which this particular environmentalvariable is mapped.

By way of example, the software application 606 may determine that thecode 614 includes an environmental variable “sv612D” mapping of“computingsystem604:service612D:XYZ123”. Then, the software application606 may determine, based on the formatting information, that thisresource name indicates a relationship between the code 614 and service612D. Given this, the software application 606 may effectively determinethat environmental variable “sv612D” indicates a relationship betweenthe code 614 and service 612D. Other examples are also possible.

In some cases, if the code 614 includes source code and/or aconfiguration file, the source code and/or configuration file mayinclude comments. These comments are generally non-operative, as thesecomments may be text other than text which commands the program usingthe code 614 to carry out certain operations during execution. Forexample, comments may be non-operative due to being text in a languagereadable by a human rather than in a machine-readable language. Inanother example, non-operative comments may be any text in a line thatfollows particular type(s) of text or symbols, such as twoforward-slashes (i.e. “//”).

Given this, in some implementations, the software application 606 may beconfigured to identify non-operative comments and to ignore thesenon-operative comments when parsing the code 614 for the above-mentionedpattern. To facilitate this, the software application 606 may haveaccess to a list of non-operative comments, such as to a list of wordsin the English language for example, and may use this list to identifyand ignore non-operative comments in the code 614. For example, thesoftware application 606 may identify the phrase “use for version 1only” in the code 614 and may determine based on the list of Englishwords that this phrase is a non-operative comment that should beignored. Additionally or alternatively, the software application 606 maybe configure to identify particular type(s) of text or symbols thatindicate that subsequent text in the same line is a non-operativecomment. For example, the software application 606 may identify “II” inthe code 614 and may responsively ignore the “II” as well as subsequenttext in the same line as the “II”. Other examples are also possible.

Accordingly, given these parsing techniques, the software application606 could discover respective relationships between the code 614 and oneor more other services. For example, the software application 606 mayparse the code 614 for a pattern indicative of respective relationshipsbetween the code 614 and services 612B, 612C, and 612D.

Once the software application 606 carries out the parsing, the softwareapplication 606 may then generate an association between the code 614and services discovered to have respective relationships with the code614 in accordance with the parsing. In practice, the generatedassociation could be a file (e.g., a text file) specifying thediscovered respective relationships between the code 614 and theservices at issue. However, the generated association could take on anyfeasible form without departing from the scope of the presentdisclosure.

In some implementations, the software application 606 may also beconfigured to verify that a certain variable in the code 614 is actuallyused during execution of the program using code 614 before generatingthe association. In particular, in line with the discussion above, thepattern the code 614 may be a programmatic or environmental variablethat is indicative of a respective relationship between the code 614 anda particular service. And the software application 606 may generate anassociation between the code 614 and this particular service only inresponse to verifying that the programmatic or environmental variable isto be used by the program during execution by computing resources of thethird-party computing system 604. The software application 606 couldcarry out such a verification step in various ways.

For example, the software application 606 could be configured todetermine whether the programmatic or environmental variable is part ofa non-operative comment, such as using the above-described techniques.If the software application 606 determines that the programmatic orenvironmental variable is only used in a non-operative comment, then thesoftware application 606 may responsively ignore this variable and maynot generate the association at issue. Whereas, if the softwareapplication 606 determines that the programmatic or environmentalvariable is used in commands in code 614 that will execute or are likelyto execute, then the software application 606 may responsively generatethe association at issue. Other examples are also possible.

Once the software application 606 generates the association, thesoftware application may then store, in the database 608,representations 618 of the code 614, the discovered service(s), and theassociation therebetween as configuration items. These storedrepresentations 618 may be accessible to user(s) of the managed network,such as via a graphical user interface on a client device configured todisplay the representations 618, which may in turn provide informationthat may help better assess the managed network's usage of variousservices provided a third-party computing system 604.

In some implementations, the software application 606 may also beconfigured to generate and then store, in the database 608, a servicemap in accordance with the representations 618. This generated servicemap may be a definition of a graph that represents the code 614 as anode, the discovered service(s) as respective nodes, and the associationtherebetween as links. Further, the software application 606 couldprovide, to the client device 602 for display, a representation 620 ofthe service map in accordance with the stored definition. The softwareapplication 606 could do so in response to receipt, from the clientdevice 602, of a request for the service map, among other options. Inany case, when the client device 602 receives the representation 620,the client device 602 may visually display the representation 620 on agraphical user interface in the browser 610, among other possibilities.

In this regard, the graphical user interface may include selectablecontrol(s) that enable editing of the representation 620 of the serviceby way of the graphical user interface. For example, the graphical userinterface may include a selectable control that enables removal of alink between a node representing the code 614 and a node representing aparticular one of the discovered services, so that the representation620 of the service map no longer illustrates a relationship between thecode 614 and this particular service. In another example, the graphicaluser interface may include selectable control that enables addition (i)of a new node representing of a different service that may not have beendiscovered by the software application 606 and (ii) of a link betweenthis new node and the node representing the code 614. Thisrepresentation 620 may be edited to illustrate a respective relationshipbetween the code 614 and this different service provided by thethird-party computing system 604. Other examples are also possible.

FIG. 7A illustrates a graphical user interface 700A that visuallydisplays the representation 620 of the service map. This service mapillustrates respective relationships between the code 614 and servicesprovided by the third-party computing system 604, as discovered by thesoftware application 606 in line with the discussion above.

More specifically, software application 606 may obtain code 614 in linewith the discussion above. By way of example (and without limitation),at least a portion of the code 614 may be as follows:

{ .....URL 123 = new URL(“user123.service612B.computingsystem604.com”);.... ......New InputStreamReader(123.openStream( ));..........getUserName(computingsystem604:service612C: XYZ453);..........getUserID(sv612D);.... }

Given this, in line with the examples discussed above, the softwareapplication 606 may parse code 614 and, in doing so, may determine (i)that the URL “user123.service612B.computingsystem604.com” indicates arelationship between the code 614 and service 612B, (ii) that theresource name of “computingsystem604:service612C: XYZ453” indicates arelationship between the code 614 and service 612C, and (iii) thatenvironmental variable “sv612D” indicates a relationship between thecode 614 and service 612D. Thus, the software application 606 mayultimately generate the representation 620 of the service map to specifythe code 614 as a node in a graph, discovered services 612B-612D asrespective nodes in the graph, and the association therebetween asrespective links.

Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 7A, the visually displayed representation620 of the service map illustrates the code 614 as a node 702 in agraph, discovered services 612B-612D as respective nodes 704A, 704B, and704C in the graph, and the association therebetween as respective links.Moreover, the graphical user interface 700A shows an “EDIT” button 706,which is a selectable graphical feature that may enable editing of thevisually displayed representation 620 of the service map.

In a further aspect, FIG. 7B illustrates a graphical user interface 700Bthat visually displays another representation of the service map, whichshows additional nodes and links in the graph. Such a visually displayedrepresentation may help an enterprise even better assess its managednetwork's usage of various services.

In particular, once respective relationships between the code 614 andservices 612B-612D are discovered, discovery procedures disclosed hereincould be used to determine respective relationships between services612B-612D and other services. For example, software application 606 maydetermine a respective relationship between code 614 and service 612B,and then determine a respective relationship between service 612B andservice 708. Similarly, software application 606 may determine arespective relationship between code 614 and service 612D, and thendetermine a respective relationship between service 612D and service710.

Accordingly, the representation that is visually display on graphicaluser interface 700B includes the features as shown in FIG. 7A, and alsoillustrates the further discovered services 708 and 710 as respectivenodes 712 and 714 in the graph, an association between service 612B andservice 708 as a respective link, and an association between service612D and service 710 as another respective link. Other illustrations arepossible as well.

VIII. EXAMPLE OPERATIONS

FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating an example embodiment. The processillustrated by FIG. 8 may be carried out by a computing system, such ascomputing device 100, and/or a cluster of computing devices, such asserver cluster 200. However, the process can be carried out by othertypes of systems, devices, or device subsystems. For example, theprocess could be carried out by a portable computer, such as a laptop ora tablet device.

The embodiments of FIG. 8 may be simplified by the removal of any one ormore of the features shown therein. Further, these embodiments may becombined with features, aspects, and/or implementations of any of theprevious figures or otherwise described herein.

Block 800 may involve obtaining, by a computing system, a unit ofprogrammatic code from a third-party computing system, where thecomputing system includes a database disposed within a remote networkmanagement platform that manages a managed network, where the unit ofprogrammatic code is hosted by the third-party computing system onbehalf of the managed network, and where a program using the unit ofprogrammatic code is executable by computing resources of thethird-party computing system that are assigned on demand.

Block 802 may involve parsing, by the computing system, the unit ofprogrammatic code for a pattern indicative of respective relationshipsbetween the unit of programmatic code and one or more services providedby the third-party computing system or by another computing system.

Block 804 may involve, based on the pattern being present in the unit ofprogrammatic code, generating, by the computing system, an associationbetween the unit of programmatic code and the one or more services.

Block 806 may involve storing, by the computing system in the database,representations of the unit of programmatic code, the one or moreservices, and the association therebetween as discovered configurationitems.

In some embodiments, a software application of the computing system maycarry out discovery of serverless resources using the operations ofblocks 800-806.

In some embodiments, the software application may be configured toexecute on one or more of (i) a server device disposed within the remotenetwork management platform or (ii) a server device disposed within themanaged network.

In some embodiments, the unit of programmatic code may include one ormore of source code, object code, a configuration file, a log file, oran environment variable.

In some embodiments, the program using the unit of programmatic code isexecutable by computing resources of the third-party computing system inresponse to a trigger event. The trigger event may be initiated by thesoftware application, by a different software application associatedwith the remote network management platform, by a software applicationassociated with the third-party computing system, or by a softwareapplication operating on a client device remotely accessing thethird-party computing system.

In some embodiments, obtaining the unit of programmatic code from thethird-party computing system may involve: transmitting, to thethird-party computing system, a request for the unit of programmaticcode, and receiving, from the third-party computing system, the unit ofprogrammatic code in response to the request.

In some embodiments, one or more of the parsing, the generating, or thestoring may occur independently from the program using the unit ofprogrammatic code being executed by computing resources of thethird-party computing system.

In some embodiments, the one or more services provided by thethird-party computing system may include one or more of (i) another unitof programmatic code hosted by the third-party computing system onbehalf of the managed network, (ii) a third-party software application,(iii) a third-party database, or (iv) a third-party server device.

In some embodiments, the unit of programmatic code may include sourcecode or a configuration file, and parsing the unit of programmatic codemay involve ignoring non-operative comments in the unit of programmaticcode.

In some embodiments, parsing the unit of programmatic code may involve:determining that the unit of programmatic code includes a particularvariable that has a particular format and that identifies a particularservice, from among the one or more services, in accordance with theparticular format.

In such embodiments, the particular variable may be one or more of auniform resource locator (URL), a fully qualified domain name (FQDN), aresource name, or a function name.

Additionally or alternatively, in such embodiments, the softwareapplication may have access to formatting information that specifies aunique format respectively for each of a plurality of types of servicesprovided by the third-party computing system or by another computingsystem, and the software application may be configured to use theformatting information as a basis for determining that the unit ofprogrammatic code includes the particular variable.

In such embodiments, the formatting information may be contained in oneor more of (i) the database disposed within the remote networkmanagement platform (ii) a third-party database of the third-partycomputing system or (iii) the software application.

In some embodiments, parsing the unit of programmatic code may involve:determining that the unit of programmatic code includes a particularenvironmental variable that is mapped to a particular value; anddetermining that the particular value has a particular format andidentifies a particular service, from among the one or more services, inaccordance with the particular format.

In such embodiments, the software application may have access to mappinginformation that maps a plurality of environmental variables torespective values, and the software application may be configured to usethe mapping information as basis for determining that the unit ofprogrammatic code includes the particular environmental variable.

In some embodiments, the pattern may include a programmatic orenvironmental variable, and the operations may further include:verifying that the programmatic or environmental variable is to be usedby the program when the program is executed by computing resources ofthe third-party computing system. In such embodiments, generating theassociation may be responsive to the verifying.

In some embodiments, the software application may be further configuredto: generate a definition of a graph that represents the unit ofprogrammatic code as a node, the one or more services as respectivenodes, and the association therebetween as respective links; and storethe definition of the graph in the database.

In such embodiments, the software application may be further configuredto: provide, to a client device associated with the managed network, arepresentation of a graphical user interface that displays the graph inaccordance with the stored definition.

In such embodiments, the graphical user interface may include one ormore selectable controls that enable editing of the graph by way of thegraphical user interface.

IX. CONCLUSION

The present disclosure is not to be limited in terms of the particularembodiments described in this application, which are intended asillustrations of various aspects. Many modifications and variations canbe made without departing from its scope, as will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art. Functionally equivalent methods and apparatuseswithin the scope of the disclosure, in addition to those describedherein, will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the foregoingdescriptions. Such modifications and variations are intended to fallwithin the scope of the appended claims.

The above detailed description describes various features and operationsof the disclosed systems, devices, and methods with reference to theaccompanying figures. The example embodiments described herein and inthe figures are not meant to be limiting. Other embodiments can beutilized, and other changes can be made, without departing from thescope of the subject matter presented herein. It will be readilyunderstood that the aspects of the present disclosure, as generallydescribed herein, and illustrated in the figures, can be arranged,substituted, combined, separated, and designed in a wide variety ofdifferent configurations.

With respect to any or all of the message flow diagrams, scenarios, andflow charts in the figures and as discussed herein, each step, block,and/or communication can represent a processing of information and/or atransmission of information in accordance with example embodiments.Alternative embodiments are included within the scope of these exampleembodiments. In these alternative embodiments, for example, operationsdescribed as steps, blocks, transmissions, communications, requests,responses, and/or messages can be executed out of order from that shownor discussed, including substantially concurrently or in reverse order,depending on the functionality involved. Further, more or fewer blocksand/or operations can be used with any of the message flow diagrams,scenarios, and flow charts discussed herein, and these message flowdiagrams, scenarios, and flow charts can be combined with one another,in part or in whole.

A step or block that represents a processing of information cancorrespond to circuitry that can be configured to perform the specificlogical functions of a herein-described method or technique.Alternatively or additionally, a step or block that represents aprocessing of information can correspond to a module, a segment, or aportion of program code (including related data). The program code caninclude one or more instructions executable by a processor forimplementing specific logical operations or actions in the method ortechnique. The program code and/or related data can be stored on anytype of computer readable medium such as a storage device including RAM,a disk drive, a solid state drive, or another storage medium.

The computer readable medium can also include non-transitory computerreadable media such as computer readable media that store data for shortperiods of time like register memory and processor cache. The computerreadable media can further include non-transitory computer readablemedia that store program code and/or data for longer periods of time.Thus, the computer readable media may include secondary or persistentlong term storage, like ROM, optical or magnetic disks, solid statedrives, compact-disc read only memory (CD-ROM), for example. Thecomputer readable media can also be any other volatile or non-volatilestorage systems. A computer readable medium can be considered a computerreadable storage medium, for example, or a tangible storage device.

Moreover, a step or block that represents one or more informationtransmissions can correspond to information transmissions betweensoftware and/or hardware modules in the same physical device. However,other information transmissions can be between software modules and/orhardware modules in different physical devices.

The particular arrangements shown in the figures should not be viewed aslimiting. It should be understood that other embodiments can includemore or less of each element shown in a given figure. Further, some ofthe illustrated elements can be combined or omitted. Yet further, anexample embodiment can include elements that are not illustrated in thefigures.

While various aspects and embodiments have been disclosed herein, otheraspects and embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art.The various aspects and embodiments disclosed herein are for purpose ofillustration and are not intended to be limiting, with the true scopebeing indicated by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computing system comprising: persistentstorage; and a software application configured to carry out operationsincluding: obtaining a unit of programmatic code deployable on anexternal computing system that is physically separated from thecomputing system by one or more networks; parsing the unit ofprogrammatic code for a pattern indicative of respective relationshipsbetween the unit of programmatic code and one or more services providedby the external computing system or by another computing system; andbased on the pattern being present in the unit of programmatic code,storing, in the persistent storage, respective associations between theunit of programmatic code and the one or more services.
 2. The computingsystem of claim 1, wherein the software application is configured toexecute on a server device that is: (i) disposed within a remote networkmanagement platform associated with an enterprise network that hasaccess to the external computing system, or (ii) disposed within theenterprise network.
 3. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the unitof programmatic code comprises one or more of: source code, object code,a configuration file, a log file, or an environment variable.
 4. Thecomputing system of claim 1, wherein a program using the unit ofprogrammatic code is executable by computing resources of the externalcomputing system in response to a trigger event, and wherein the triggerevent is initiated by the software application or by a differentsoftware application, wherein the different software application is: (i)operating on a remote network management platform associated with anenterprise network that has access to the external computing system,(ii) operating on a client device configured to remotely access theexternal computing system, or (iii) associated with the externalcomputing system.
 5. The computing system of claim 1, wherein obtainingthe unit of programmatic code comprises: transmitting, to the externalcomputing system, a request for the unit of programmatic code, andreceiving, from the external computing system, the unit of programmaticcode in response to the request.
 6. The computing system of claim 1,wherein one or more of the parsing or the storing occurs independentlyfrom a program using the unit of programmatic code being executed bycomputing resources of the external computing system.
 7. The computingsystem of claim 1, wherein the one or more services comprise one or moreof: (i) a further unit of programmatic code, (ii) a further softwareapplication deployable on the external computing system, (iii) a furtherpersistent storage disposed within the external computing system, or(iv) a server device disposed within the external computing system. 8.The computing system of claim 1, wherein the unit of programmatic codecomprises source code or a configuration file, and wherein parsing theunit of programmatic code comprises ignoring non-operative comments inthe unit of programmatic code.
 9. The computing system of claim 1,wherein parsing the unit of programmatic code comprises: determiningthat the unit of programmatic code includes a particular variable thathas a particular format and that identifies a particular service, fromamong the one or more services, in accordance with the particularformat.
 10. The computing system of claim 9, wherein the particularvariable is one or more of: a uniform resource locator (URL), a fullyqualified domain name (FQDN), a resource name, or a function name. 11.The computing system of claim 9, wherein the software application hasaccess to formatting information that specifies a unique formatrespectively for each of a plurality of types of services provided bythe external computing system or by another computing system, andwherein the software application is configured to use the formattinginformation as a basis for determining that the unit of programmaticcode includes the particular variable.
 12. The computing system of claim11, wherein the formatting information is contained in one or more of:(i) the persistent storage, (ii) further persistent storage disposedwithin the external computing system, or (iii) the software application.13. The computing system of claim 1, wherein parsing the unit ofprogrammatic code comprises: determining that the unit of programmaticcode includes a particular environmental variable that is mapped to aparticular value; and determining that the particular value has aparticular format and identifies a particular service, from among theone or more services, in accordance with the particular format.
 14. Thecomputing system of claim 13, wherein the software application hasaccess to mapping information that maps a plurality of environmentalvariables to respective values, and wherein the software application isconfigured to use the mapping information as basis for determining thatthe unit of programmatic code includes the particular environmentalvariable.
 15. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the patternincludes a programmatic or environmental variable, wherein theoperations further include: verifying that the programmatic orenvironmental variable is to be used by a program when the program isexecuted by computing resources of the external computing system,wherein storing the respective associations is responsive to theverifying.
 16. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the softwareapplication is further configured to: generate a definition of a graphthat represents the unit of programmatic code as a node, the one or moreservices as respective nodes, and the respective associationstherebetween as respective links; and store, in the persistent storage,the definition of the graph.
 17. The computing system of claim 16,wherein the software application is further configured to: provide, to aclient device, a representation of a graphical user interface thatdisplays the graph in accordance with the definition of the graph asstored.
 18. The computing system of claim 17, wherein the graphical userinterface includes one or more selectable controls that enable editingof the graph by way of the graphical user interface.
 19. A methodcomprising: obtaining, by a computing system, a unit of programmaticcode deployable on an external computing system that is physicallyseparated from the computing system by one or more networks; parsing, bythe computing system, the unit of programmatic code for a patternindicative of respective relationships between the unit of programmaticcode and one or more services provided by the external computing systemor by another computing system; and based on the pattern being presentin the unit of programmatic code, storing, by the computing system andin a persistent storage, respective associations between the unit ofprogrammatic code and the one or more services.
 20. An article ofmanufacture including a non-transitory computer-readable medium, havingstored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by a computingsystem that includes persistent storage, cause the computing system toperform operations comprising: obtaining a unit of programmatic codedeployable on an external computing system that is physically separatedfrom the computing system by one or more networks; parsing the unit ofprogrammatic code for a pattern indicative of respective relationshipsbetween the unit of programmatic code and one or more services providedby the external computing system or by another computing system; andbased on the pattern being present in the unit of programmatic code,storing, in the persistent storage, respective associations between theunit of programmatic code and the one or more services.